Glossary

BitDust

Global computer network for distributed data storage, sharing, publishing, digital communications, etc.

BitDust Program

Open-source software delivered and distributed by BitDust contributors under GNU Affero General Public License v3.

Node

Computer connected to the Internet, which has BitDust Software installed and running.

BitDust Network

Voluntary association of people using their personal computers as independently interacting with each other BitDust Nodes.

Data

Any information which can be stored on a computer disk drive as a single file or a folder.

Backup Copy

Exact copy of data encrypted by some node, which was created at some point in time.

Folder Backup Copy

backup copy of data, which was obtained from archiving all files stored in the given folder on computer hard disk drive, possibly including also all sub-folders.

Distributed Copy

A backup copy, which was stored on different nodes in BitDust network.

Block

A file on a hard disk drive containing only a part of backup copy and having an order number, assigned at the moment of creation.

Fragment

A part of block, prepared in the process of a backup copy creation and having an order number – position in the block, also may be called as sector.

Size of Backup Copy

Total size of all blocks related to given backup copy.

Packet

Service Packet

Useful information transferred from one node to another in the BitDust network and containing digital-signature of the sender.

Data Packet

Data Portion

A packet, containing encrypted fragment of data.

BitDust Data Storage

A method of data processing which implies source data encryption, archivation and relocation on different nodes, divided into blocks and fragments.

Recovery

A process of inverse transformation of data from divided fragments and source data reconstruction from existing backup copy.

Upload to the BitDust Network

A process of creation of distributed copy of given data, portions of which are located at suppliers machines.

Download from the BitDust Network

A process of data recovery from distributed copy, which was initially located at the suppliers machine.

Supplier

A node in the BitDust network, whose owner voluntary agreed to store other user's data on the hard disk drive of his personal computer.

Client

A node in the BitDust network, whose owner uses the space on the HDD's of other nodes for storing his own data.

Clients Folder

A local folder on the hard disk drive of the supplier machine, where data of his clients are stored.

Shared Supplier Space

Maximum possible volume reached by clients folder.

Used Supplier Space

Current volume of clients folder.

Allocated Client Space

A byte value previously agreed upon with the user, which states the maximum total volume of all data, that the client can locate at the given node.

Free Supplier Space

A difference between shared supplier space and total volume of allocated client space for all the clients of the user.

Used Client Space

Total volume of all already created distributed copies of the given user.

Requested Client Space

An upper bound of used client space for given user – in other words a maximum total volume of data, which can be allocated at the suppliers.

Free Client Space

A difference between requestd and used clients space.

Command

A packet of data containing only code phrase, a message or any other information, used for interaction between nodes in the BitDust network.

Message

encrypted text message addressed at exact user.

Encryption

Some data transform for the purpose of its protection.

Archivation

data transform for the purpose of creating a unified stream and decreasing the total size of the stored information,

Public Key

Private Key

Digital signature

Secret key is used for personal data protection, you are welcome to read detailed article on Wikipedia.

Identity

A publicly readable file containing an public key, digital-signature, contact details and other information belonging to exact user.

ID-server

Identity server

A single node in the BitDust network which acts as a server receiving and storing identity files for other nodes.

Identity URL

IDURL

User Identifier

Uique address of the exact identity file in the Internet and BitDust network.

Network Logon

A process of creating a new identity file, its sending to several id-servers and receiving unique IDURL address for given user.

Identity Recovery

A process of downloading of identity file from one of the id-servers ( via known IDURL ) and further conformance check of file content and user private key.

Automation

Finite State Machine

A mathematical model designed for specification of any algorithm in which all possible states of the prototype process are salient and transitions between states are specified.

State

One of the stages of the algorithm, which were allocated logically reasonable analysis of the simulated process.

Transition Graph

Visual framework of the finite state machine which displays: states, transitions, events, conditions, actions and text descriptions.